My Morning Helper

So as most of you know, my mornings invariably start between 4:30 and 5 in the morning with feeding the cats, the dog, and then heading down the long living room trek to my office to start typing. Lately I have acquired a companion/helper of sorts. He has "helped" me to get to know my delete button quite well.

It starts with Manis leaping up onto Jeff's side of the desk and peering around the side of my computer screen. He has good reason to be leery. A week ago he was in this position and unbeknownst him, was sitting on my cell phone, which for some reason I not only had cranked up to maximum volume, but also had set to vibrate. Mom happened to call at this crucial moment of utmost curiosity in working of my hands and, well, lets just say I have a vague memory of him floating somewhere around my head and then suddenly appearing at the other end of the living room running in space for a good 10 seconds while he tried to find purchase on the hardwood floor. Needless to say, I wonder at the fact that he finds the need for a good scratch worth all that torture.  Anyway, back to the normal routine. He sits next to my computer headbutting my hands (thus my repeated use of the delete key) until I break down and pet him, which only results in more head butting and the resultant drool on my hand (the poor guy only has three teeth). Finally, he moves on.

To my lap.

And there he sits...until he lays down.

And then we are good until I have to get up to make coffee, or go to the bathroom, at which point he is unceremoniously dumped off my lap and onto the cold, hard, unforgiving ground by the horrible monster of a master (loosely translated) that I am.

Note, it has taken me three bouts of sitting at the computer to type this short blog and we have gone through this routine all three times. One of us is a bit of a slow learner....ahem.